T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India - International ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Union Territories along with the proposals for diversion of forest land under the Forest(Conservation) Act, 1980.(ii) The money received towards Net Present Value (NPV) shall be used for naturalassisted regeneration, forest management, protection, infrastructure dev elopement,wildlife protection and management, supply of wood and other forest produce savingdevices and other allied activities.(iii) Monies realized from the user agencies in pursuance of the Hon'ble Supreme Court'sorder or decision taken by the National Board for Wildlife involving cases of diversion offorest land in protected areas shall form the corpus and the income therefrom shall beused exclusively for undertaking protection and conservation activities in protected areasof the States and the Union Territories and in exceptional circumstances, a part of thecorpus may also be used subject to prior approval of the CAMPA.(iv) CAMPA shall release monies to concerned State and Union Territory inpredetermined installments through the State Level Management Committee as per theAnnual Plan of Operation (APO) finalized by the concerned State and the UnionTerritory.(v) The monies received in CAMPA from a State or the Union Territory as per para 6.2and the income thereon after deducting expenditure incurred by the CAMPA on itsestablishment cost, monitoring and evaluation on a prorate basis shall be used only in thatparticular State or the union Territory."Clause 6.6 provides for other functions and reads thus:"(i) The CAMPA may establish Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) for undertakingcompensatory afforestation particularly by involving large public sector undertakingswhich frequently require forests and for their projects, in consultation and as far aspossible with the concurrence of the CEC.(ii) The CAMPA may also consider evolving new mechanism to generate additionalsources of fund for forest conservation works and to create capacity and data base forbetter conceptualization and management of fund."Having regard to the nature of the functions of the Executive Body of the CAMPA, wefind substance in the suggestion of learned Amicus Curiae that there should be moreinvolvement of NGOs by including in the Executive Body, the conservationists,environmentalists, economists and experts in forestry. We are of the view that theExecutive Body deserves to be expanded as, presently, only one professional ecologist isits member, remaining all being officers of the Government. We may note here that aforthright and fair stand was taken by the learned Solicitor General not only in regard tothe constitution of CAMPA but on other aspects also, keeping in view the non-adversarialnature of the litigation. Learned Solicitor General submitted that the Government is8
committed to conserve the forest and protect the environments, and would implement, inletter and spirit, the directions issued by this Court.In view of above, we direct that clause 2.2 shall be suitably amended so as to include twomore environmentalists, one of whom may be expert in the field of forest and the other inthe field of forest economy development. These members shall be included in theExecutive Body in consultation with the Chairperson of the CEC.Regarding clause 6.3(iv), it was suggested that there should be corporate accountingbased on double entry system and auditing should be conducted by the Comptroller andAuditor-General (CAG). We see substance in this suggestion as well.Clause (v) in 6.4 provides that the monies received in CAMPA shall be used only in thatparticular State or Union Territory. The clause seems to be too rigid. Many a times, theeffect of degradation of environment or depletion of forest can be felt more in theadjoining area which may be in a different State or Union Territory. The effect ofenvironmental degradation cannot be restricted to a particular area. The impact cannot belimited to the place of origin. Therefore, we direct that a suitable modification of theclause shall be made so as to provide that ordinarily expenditure shall be incurred in theparticular State or Union Territory but leaving it to the discretion of the CAMPA to alsoincur expenditure in the State or Union Territory other than the one mentioned in clause6.2 if it considers it necessary.Clause 6.6 which by use of the word 'may' leaves it to the discretion of the CAMPA toestablish Special Performance Vehicle (SPV) for undertaking compensatory afforestationdeserves to be amended so as to substitute the word 'may' by the word 'shall' so that theregeneration is done by some SPV in specified areas.Now, we come to the question of the guiding principle to be laid for determining theNPV. Reference was made to opinions of various experts laying down as to what is theconcept of NPV and how it is to be calculated. The question is also about the legal andjurisdictional basis to levy NPV. Most of the States did not object to the recovery of theNPV from the user-agency but strenuously urged that since the land under the forestbelongs to the State, the amount deposited by the user-agency as NPV shall be paid tothem. It was also contended on behalf of the States that there should be no NPV ondegraded forest. The further submission was that all public utility projects shall beexempted from payment of NPV. On the other hand, relying upon the principles of intergenerationalequity and sustainable development, Mr. Harish Salve, learned seniorcounsel and Amicus Curiae contended that forest is a part of eco-system and, therefore,the value to be put and calculated is not only on trees and leaves but the basis has to bethe preservation of bio-diversity. It is submitted that NPV is to be levied and collected notbecause property rights of the States are affected but on account of effect on ecology byconversion of forest land for non-forest purpose. Further, Mr. Salve submits that the basisfor calculation of NPV should be the economic value, spread over a period of 50 years,which would be regenerational value for forest regeneration to be taken into account asopposed to restoration value, i.e., financial value. Regarding legal and jurisdictional basis9
Page 1 and 2: Case Note: Case concerning the gene
Page 3 and 4: Government has been given wide powe
Page 5 and 6: procedure for this purpose would be
Page 7: (vii) A professional ecologist, not
Page 11 and 12: The question, which we have to answ
Page 13 and 14: 7. Legal, institutional and economi
Page 15 and 16: It is not necessary to delve furthe
Page 17 and 18: about half a century earlier. It ha
Page 19 and 20: Assemblies. Under Section 12, CAG i
Page 21 and 22: Thus reading Entry 47 with Entry 20
Page 23 and 24: "We are fully aware that the issues
Page 25 and 26: -- Meeting the requirements of fuel
Page 27 and 28: -- As far as possible, a forest-bas
Page 29 and 30: three years, the corresponding pres
Page 31 and 32: society cares or does not care for
Page 33 and 34: e filed in Court and SPV shall not

T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India - International ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?